Brian Garcia is not a particularly talented singer, but that doesn’t stop him from serenading his teammates during practice. Just ask offensive lineman Joe Mujalli.
Mujalli often finds himself in the unfortunate position directly across the line from Garcia when the 245-pound defensive end begins belting out the theme song from the TV cartoon show “Fraggle Rock.”
“Sometimes it gets so loud the offense can’t hear the audibles,” Mujalli says.
Garcia, a senior from Lutz, FL, can always be counted on by his teammates to do the unthinkable.
Throughout his stay at Harvard, Garcia has pulled a number of stunts in the pursuit of a laugh. He once replaced all of the footballs with nerf footballs, periodically rollerblades through the showers and once threw a pie right into the unsuspecting face of teammate Matt Fratto.
Needless to say, Garcia likes to keep the team loose.
“We can be dog tired, covered in mud, getting yelled at by coaches,” Mujalli says, “and Brian will give you a subtle wink or a smile that just makes everyone crack up.”
It is this type of carefree attitude that allowed Garcia to overcome some serious obstacles on his way to becoming one of the best defensive ends in the Ivy League.
As a junior at Tampa Catholic High School, Garcia never envisioned playing college football.
But as his senior year began, the scouts found him.
A number of major football universities in Florida looked at Garcia but all eventually lost interest, leaving him disappointed and unsure of his future. Add to this a disciplinary incident that led to a three-game suspension from his high school team, and Garcia easily could have called it quits on the field.
But he didn’t quit. Soon after his reinstatement to his high school team some other schools took notice of Garcia. After visiting Brown, Princeton and the Naval Academy, he chose Harvard.
“[Harvard] just fit me the best,” Garcia says. “The kids, the atmosphere, everything just made me feel comfortable.”
Unfortunately for Garcia, the comfort he felt on the Harvard campus didn’t immediately translate to the football field.
After playing on the defensive line as well as at linebacker, tight end and fullback in high school, Garcia was placed at defensive end as a freshman.
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